Very interesting read. I am a new ham. I've had my ticket less than a year. I am a broke individual. Lol. So guess what first purchase was.....yep the uv5r. I have one in my truck set up !Ike a poor man's Mobile. Work great for what it is. My local repeater is pretty tall. It gives my little cheap radio about 35 plus mile radius.

Anything that gets you on the air! Some experts note that the UV5R has poor output filters and splatters outside its frequency bandwidth. That may be true but since the VHF frequencies are quiet 99% of the time I can't see it creating a problem. I have a UV5R.